Photo of Albany International Airport’s Concourse A interior provided by the airport.
ALBANY — The Albany International Airport (ALB) recently announced that it has completed Phase 1 of its Concourse A Rehabilitation Project, marking a milestone in the most substantial overhaul to the concourse since it opened in 1979.
The focal point of this first phase is the addition of two new jet bridge-equipped gates, A1 and A2, located on the upper level alongside existing gates A3 through A6. Previously, gates A1 and A2 functioned as ground-level boarding areas, accessible only by walking outside, and were rarely used. These second-floor gates replace that outdated infrastructure with a modern, weather-protected boarding experience.
“Albany International is the front door to our region, and this project shows we’re serious about making a great first impression,” said Sam Fresina, chair of the Albany County Airport Authority Board in a news release. “We’re not just updating a concourse, we’re investing in infrastructure that supports jobs, attracts new routes, and keeps this airport competitive for years to come.”
“Albany International is the oldest municipal airport in the nation, and has come a long way since it was built on this site nearly 100 years ago. We knew it needed to be modernized as it continues to grow,” said Daniel P. McCoy, Albany County executive.
The first flights to use the newly constructed gates departed on July 28, with Allegiant Air operating from Gate A1 and United Airlines scheduled to depart from Gate A2 later in the week. These inaugural departures mark the official opening of the upgraded portion of Concourse A for passenger service.
Additional upgrades in Phase 1 include:
• Polished terrazzo flooring and a modernized ceiling design
• All-new seating with integrated power outlets
• Dedicated space for a future concession vendor
• Upgraded lighting and energy-efficient infrastructure
The cost of construction for the full Concourse A Rehabilitation Project is $13.36 million. Of that, $10.6 million was provided through a federal grant from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The funding supports the full scope of the project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2026.
The Concourse A project was made possible in part by a $10.6 million federal grant secured through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. U.S. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand were instrumental in delivering this funding to Albany.
Future phases will include renovations to gates A3 through A6, improved restrooms, upgraded mechanical systems, and additional passenger amenities, which are all designed to modernize the concourse, enhance the customer experience, and support ALB’s continued growth.
Shane Daley of Galway is alleged to have harassed the family of Brian Thompson, pictured here ( United Health Care)
A Galway man has been charged in federal court for allegedly harassing the family of Brian Thompson, a health care CEO killed in 2024.
Shane Daley, 40, of Galway was charged with cyberstalking after he allegedly placed multiple calls to a phone line used by a member of Thompson’s family. Daley allegedly made the calls between Dec. 4 and Dec. 7, 2024, with the first calls starting just hours after Thompson’s death.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Daley expressed satisfaction over Thomspon’s death and said his family and children deserved a similar fate.
“Daley threatened and harassed a grieving family in the immediate aftermath of a loved one’s murder,” Jay Clayton, United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said. “These selfish, harmful, and callous actions undermine public safety and will not be tolerated. This Office, together with our law enforcement partners, will pursue and prosecute those who seek to intimidate victims and their families.”
At the time of his death, Brian Thompson was the CEO of United Health Care, one of two subsidiaries of United Health Group. United Health Care is one of the largest health insurance companies with over 50 million people served according to an outlook release by the company. In 2024, United Health Care alone brought in over $400 billion in revenue.
On the morning of Dec. 4, 2024, Thompson was killed while visiting New York City. Luigi Mangione of Towson, MD was arrested and charged for the murder although he has pleaded not guilty and as of Aug. 13, a trial date hasn’t been set.
As for Daley, he was arraigned in Albany before US Magistrate Judge Daniel Stewart. If convicted, he will potentially face a maximum of five years in federal prison, a fine of up to $250,000 and term of supervised release of up to three years.
“The recurrent calls and messages in the days following Brian Thompson’s murder were more than callous and cold-hearted harassment – they were threatening and terrified a family already suffering following the violent death of their loved one,” Christopher G. Raia, Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Office of the FBI said. “The FBI will continue to bring to justice any individual attempting to stalk and harass innocent Americans.”
Are you planning on running your sprinkler every day or washing your car this month? If so, then the City of Saratoga Springs is asking you to reconsider.
The city is implementing voluntary water restrictions on outdoor watering due to increased strain on the water system, lower than average rain and inadequate rain forecasted in the future. The public works department said the restriction was a precautionary measure to decrease water usage.
Under the restrictions, residents are asked to only run water on landscaping every other day based on their house numbers — with odd numbered houses watering on odd numbered days and even numbered houses watering on even numbered days. For example, someone who lives at house number 201 would water on August 13, 15, 17, 19, etc. — while some at 210 would water on August 12, 14, 16, 18, etc.
In addition, the city is asking all residents not to water or wash cars between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. due to increased evaporation rates which the city says can represent a loss of 30%.
The Department of Public Works said the restrictions do not apply to handheld watering devices, however, they did ask residents to ensure water remains on lawns and gardens and not on paved areas.
“Help from residents to conserve water will go a long way to preserve the reservoir levels until it’s replenished with some heavy rainstorms,” Department of Public Works Commissioner Chuck Marshall said. “This is a precautionary measure to reduce the volume of water being used for landscape watering and we appreciate the public’s cooperation.”
According to the Department of Public Works, the city’s water treatment plant pumped 5.2 million gallons of water per day in June and 6.6 million gallons of water per day in July, an increase from the 4.3 million gallons of water per day averaged in 2024.
Saratoga Springs isn’t the first jurisdiction to implement voluntary water restrictions. The Town of Ballston implemented similar water restrictions on July 16, and the Town of Charlton implemented the measures on July 17. In addition, the Town of Moreau issued a water restriction order on Aug. 12 — although this notice was due to repairs to the water supply in Queensbury.
The voluntary water restrictions come at a time when Saratoga Springs has seen higher than average temperatures with steady or below average precipitation. According to the National Weather Service, June saw 4.41 inches of precipitation, compared to the average of 4.18 inches while July saw 3.91 inches compared to an average of 4.24 inches.
Meanwhile in terms of temperature, Saratoga Springs saw an average temperature of 71.4 degrees in June, compared to the average of 67.2 overall, and an average temperature of 77.3 — the highest average temperature for July on record — compared to the typical average of 71.8 degrees.
Closeup of a tennis ball that has been modified for visually impaired players. Photos by Jonathon Norcross.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Camp Abilities Saratoga held its first-ever blind tennis program on Monday afternoon, allowing children and teens with visual impairments to serve, volley, and smash at Skidmore College’s new McCaffery-Wagman Tennis and Wellness Center.
The game is modified to include soft plush balls filled with rattles so that players can hear where the ball is located. Although the balls don’t have the same bounce as a typical tennis ball, they are larger and thus easier to hit with a racket. The courts are also condensed to include only the service boxes. Tactile strips are placed at the service line and around the service boxes so that players can feel when they’re about to head out-of-bounds. The rules are also altered so that, depending on the player’s level of visual impairment, they can allow the ball to bounce anywhere from one to three times before returning it. And although spectators might want to cheer, they’re required to keep quiet so that players can auditorily track the ball.
“We just wanted to bring blind tennis to the world and introduce it to more people, to get the sport developed a lot more,” Camp Director Tiffany Suppes told Saratoga TODAY. “And it just so happens, it’s the same year that Skidmore finished the [tennis] courts, so it worked perfectly for us.”
Suppes said that Camp Abilities Saratoga pairs up its campers one-on-one with coaches who can help modify and adapt any sport or activity to suit the needs of individual campers. The camp also has sports specialists that oversee and teach activities.
Camp Abilities Saratoga runs until Aug. 9 on Skidmore’s campus, where around two dozen campers participate in a variety of sports, including beep baseball, swimming, goal ball, track, tandem biking, and tennis.
Camp Abilities Saratoga was founded in 2013 as a service project of the Saratoga Springs Lions Club, modeled after Camp Abilities Brockport. Its mission includes promoting physical activity among children who are blind, visually impaired, or deaf blind; supporting future educators; and demonstrating to families each child’s potential for independence in an inclusive, enriching environment.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — The two-night Saratoga Sale at Fasig-Tipton shattered previously established records for gross, average, and median, including topping gross sales of $100,000,000 for the first time in the sale’s history.
The $4,100,000 sale topper, Hip 218 (a colt by Into Mischief), was the most expensive Saratoga yearling sold in 25 years. Sixteen yearlings sold for seven figures during the Tuesday session – a record for single-session million-dollar sales – while a total of 25 million-dollar yearlings sold over the course of the two nights, annihilating the previous record set in 2021 of 14 million-dollar yearlings sold over two nights.
The second-highest priced yearling of the evening was also a colt by multiple champion sire Into Mischief (Hip 178), sold for $3,000,000. The bay colt is out of the Grade 1 placed winning Bernardini mare Lady Kate and was bred in Kentucky by Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings.
“It was a remarkable two days,” said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning in a news release. “We’ve been selling at Saratoga for 104 years, so it’s not an overnight sensation. It’s the culmination of many years of hard work and sweat. We try to work hard and do the right thing and on nights like these it all comes together like magic.”
Other notable sales included:
• A Gun Runner (Hip 179) half-brother to last year’s Demoiselle S. (G2) winner Muhimma sold for $2,900,000;
• Another colt by Into Mischief (Hip 163), this out of the multiple Grade 1 winning multimillionaire I’m a Chatterbox, sold for $2,600,000;
• A filly by Gun Runner (Hip 175) sold for $2,600,000;
• A colt by Flightline (Hip 176) was sold for $1,800,000;
• A colt by the late Uncle Mo (Hip 219) was also sold for $1,800,000;
• A filly by Gun Runner (Hip 200), the first foal out of speedy Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner Shedaresthedevil, sold for $1,475,000;
• A colt by successful young sire Not This Time (Hip 150) sold for $1,400,000;
• A colt by Bolt d’Oro (Hip 214) also went for $1,400,000;
• In addition to the sale topper, a second colt by Into Mischief (Hip 123) sold for $1,250,000.
Over the span of two nights, 160 yearlings sold for $100,715,000, a sale record gross and an increase of 22.6% over the then-record gross established last year when 154 yearlings sold for $82,160,000. The average was $629,469, up 18% over the highwater mark set last year of $533,506. The median rose 5.9% to $450,000 to establish a new record over last year’s median $425,000. The RNA rate was just 12.3%, the lowest in this sale’s history since 1981.
A slide from a presentation delivered by NYRA’s Glen Kozak shows weather stations and forecasts at the Saratoga Race Course. Image via the Jockey Club’s “Weather Wise: How Sports and Racing Are Adapting” panel discussion in Saratoga Springs on July 31.
SARATOGA SPRINGS — On the turf or off the turf? For horse racing fans, the answer to this question can be more important than Hamlet’s existential query, “To be, or not to be?”
A panel discussion held in Saratoga Springs last week helped shed light on how the New York Racing Association (NYRA) monitors weather forecasts, which can decide whether conditions will allow races to be run on or off the turf (or, in more extreme cases, whether races will be run at all).
Glen Kozak, NYRA’s executive vice president of operations and capital projects, said that NYRA collects its own data via three weather stations on the Saratoga Race Course property. These stations capture data pertaining to moisture, temperature, wind speed, and air quality (the last of which has increasingly become an issue due to wildfires in Canada).
Kozak credited Kaleb Dempsey of the Racing Surfaces Testing Laboratory with designing the equipment that provides real-time data that impacts not only decisions related to turf racing but also the track’s scheduling plans in general.
NYRA also utilizes the services of three on-call weather agencies, allowing them to consult with meteorologists whenever necessary.
“Dealing with the weather services, we’re able to get information on how we prepare the track, what we’re doing with the track; and then it’s the discussions with the racing office and the officials on what we would do for the day,” Kozak said.
Weather (pun intended) horse racing fans agree or disagree with NYRA’s decisions to alter or reschedule certain races, it can’t be denied that such decisions are well-substantiated.
For the second week in a row, a haze fell over Saratoga County as wildfire smoke continued to penetrate the landscape.
On Aug 4 and 5 Federal and private monitors in the capitol region showed air quality index levels above 100 — making the air unsafe for sensitive groups — while some monitors in Saratoga County showed air quality levels above 150 — dangerous for all people.
With the continued downturn in air quality, Saratoga TODAY looked at what’s causing this problem and whether it will get worse.
What’s causing drops in air quality?
In the US, air quality drops have been associated with smoke coming from wildfires currently taking place in Canada. Smoke from fires over 1000 away from Saratoga has been travelling southeast, across the Midwest and into New York.
According to the latest situation report from the Canadian Interagency Forrest Fire Centre (CIFF), there are currently 737 active fires impacting the country. Of those, 504 are considered out of control with 199 receiving a full response and 305 receiving a monitored response.
Where are the fires taking place?
The fires are taking place largely beyond where most of the population of both Canada and the US would be directly impacted by the blazes. According to CIFF, most of the fires are taking place out west in the northern parts of Western Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia. There are also clusters of fires in Canada’s Northernmost territories of Yukon and Northwest Territories, as well as out east on the island of Newfoundland.
A map of the wildfires in Canada. Red dots indicate a fire that’s out of control and receiving a full response, purple indicates a fire that’s out of control but being monitored, yellow indicates a fire that’s been held to a specific area and blue indicates a fire that’s been contained and in the process of being extinguished ( Courtesy of CIFF)
While Canada is the second largest country in the world by landmass, most of it’s population is clustered in major cities such as Toronto and Montreal in the east and Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver in the west, according to population maps from statistics Canada.
As a result, most of the fires are taking place far away from population centers. While there have been multiple evacuation orders in the provinces impacted by the blazes, many of these are primarily in small rural communities.
Is this normal?
Across North America, wildfires are a natural phenomenon. In Canada specifically, the fires serve to help a forest recycle debris and prevent build up, according to Parks Canada.
Fire is also one of the ways forestry services deal with wildfire conditions. As part of many forest management plans, agencies will start fires in what are prescribed burns, according to the National Park Service. These fires reduce fuel build up and allow an area to go through its natural processes in a more controlled way. Fires are even used locally in Saratoga National Park to help keep the battlefield in similar condition to what it was during the battle 250 years ago.
While fires themselves may be natural, the current conditions aren’t. Since 1983, when data on wildfires was first collected and reported in Canada, there has been only two fire seasons worse than the one currently being experienced — 1994 and 2023.
These worsening fire conditions have been attributed to climate change. According to Natural Resources Canada, because the air is becoming warmer and drier, wildfire seasons have been getting longer and more intense. This can be seen in drought conditions which show much of Canada experiencing abnormally high levels of dryness — particularly in areas currently dealing with the fires.
Canada has also had to deal with “zombie fires” or fires that lay dormant beneath the permafrost and snow for months before sparking back up when conditions are ripe for fires, according to NOAA.
How does this compare to the US?
Despite sharing a long border and working together on many wildfire responses, there are some notable differences between how the US and Canada experience and deal with fires.
The first major difference is human settlement in fire prone areas. In the US, settlement in wildland areas has gone up by nearly 50% in the last 40 years, according to a study funded by the US Forest Service. This number equates to 32% all housing in the US being in the wildland areas as of 2020.
Meanwhile in Canada, according to data from the Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 12.1% of Canadians live in wildland areas with an estimated 17% of those being in wildfire prone areas.
Beyond just having a lower population in wildland areas, Canada also has fewer fires started by humans. In the US, an estimated 85% of fires are started due to human interaction — be it accidental or due to negligence, according to the US Forest Service. Canada meanwhile sees the majority of their fires sparked by lightning strikes. In 2023 — the worst fire season on record — 93% of fires were as a result of lightning strikes with the remaining 7% caused by humans according to a study by Canada’s natural resource department.
What’s the impact on Saratoga?
In light of the of these fires, the New York Department of Health has advised residents to keep an eye on air quality levels and consider moving events inside — especially for those in high-risk groups.
“Poor air quality can pose serious health risks — especially for those with heart conditions, lung diseases, such as asthma, young children, those over 65 years old and pregnant individuals,” New York State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said “To reduce exposure, limit strenuous activity outdoors. We encourage all New Yorkers to visit airnow.gov for the latest air quality forecast and be on the lookout for Air Quality Health Advisories from the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health.”
A parking meter on the Putnam Street Parking Deck ( Thomas Dimopoulos)
Roads and parking were two of the main focuses of this week’s Saratoga Springs City Council meeting.
The council considered a bill that would suspend seasonal parking fees for two days and held it’s first hearing on a bill that would reduce the speed limit in the city from 30 to 25 mph.
These were just two of the items on the agenda for the city this week. Here is a rundown of major events and happenings from City Council.
Parking bill fails to pass.
A proposal to give residents and visitors two days of fee-free seasonal parking failed to gain traction in city council.
The bill was designed to promote economic activity and support businesses downtown. Under the bill, two days would be selected by the Commissioner of Public Works to have no fees on parking in city owned garages and surface lots.
Commissioner of Public Works, Chuck Marshall proposed the bill because he didn’t expect the paid parking program to reach its anticipated financial goals and he wanted to give two days back to the business community.
Marshall has consistently been opposed to the paid parking program and argued that since they’re not going to get their promised revenue from the program, then the program should be temporarily suspended to incentivize people to stay in the downtown area particularly after major events such as shows at SPAC or important races at the track.
When presented before City Council, the proposal met stiff opposition from other council members. Accounts Commissioner Dillon Moran argued that cutting off revenue was financially unsound while Public Safety Commissioner Tim Coll wanted a full year to review the program and its impact on the city.
Ultimately, these concerns won out as the measure failed to pass by a vote of 3-1 with Coll, Moran and Mayor John Safford opposing the measure and Marshall supporting it.
Residents voice opinions on proposed drop in speed limit.
A Proposal to reduce the city’s speed limit to 25 mph held it’s first public hearing this week. The measure has been proposed by Public Safety Commissioner Coll in order to make the streets of Saratoga Springs safer.
Before the public got a chance to speak, a presentation was made by Safe Streets outlining how reducing the speed limit would reduce traffic injuries without significantly increasing travel times. According to Safe Streets, accidents at 20 mph had a 90% survival rate while accidents at 40 mph had a 100% survival rate. At the same time, the mile time from 30 mph to 25 mph was only reduced by 24 seconds.
The proposed speed limit reduction had widespread support from members of the public. The first speaker, a young boy who said he rides his bike and walks around the city, argued that a slower speed limit would make the roads safer for kids like him. The boy received a round of applause from council members and audience members, and his views were echoed by other speakers.
Many argued that the speed limit had to be reduced and also urged more enforcement of the speed limits both new and current.
The ordinance is set to be voted upon on a later date as city council members wanted to ensure proper time for consideration.
Public hearing set to remove jail time for 39 offenses.
A public hearing has been set on a proposed ordinance that would remove jail time for 39 different municipal offenses.
The proposal, which is coming from the mayor’s office, comes at the urging of Assistant City Attorney Tony Izzo who said that in his 40 years working for the city, there has only been one instance where he can recall someone went to jail for violating city ordinances.
